nimbus

American  

[nim-buhs] / ˈnɪm bəs /

noun

• nimbi,
  plural
• nimbuses
  plural

1. Classical Mythology. a shining cloud sometimes surrounding a deity when on earth.

2. a cloud, aura, atmosphere, etc., surrounding a person or thing.

   The candidate was encompassed with a nimbus of fame.

3. halo.

4. the type of dense clouds or cloud mass with ragged edges, that yields rain or snow; a rain cloud.

5. (initial capital letter) one of a series of polar-orbiting meteorological and environmental research satellites, the last of which Nimbus 7, launched 1978, was the first satellite designed to monitor atmospheric pollutants.

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nimbus British  

/ ˈnɪmbəs /

noun

1. 1. a dark grey rain-bearing cloud

   2. ( in combination )

      cumulonimbus clouds

2. 1. an emanation of light surrounding a saint or deity

   2. a representation of this emanation

3. a surrounding aura or atmosphere

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nimbus Scientific  

/ nĭm′bəs /

• nimbi
  plural

1. A rain cloud.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nimbused
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• nimbi
  plural
• nimbuses
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of nimbus

First recorded in 1600–10; from Latin, “rainstorm, rain cloud, thundercloud, cloud”; akin to Latin nebula and Greek nephélē, néphos “cloud,” and Slavic ( Polish ) niebo “sky, heaven”

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Explanation

A nimbus is a glowing light that encircles someone or something. A shadowy figure standing in front of your car's headlights might have a nimbus around it. One kind of nimbus is the holy glow that's said to surround the body or head of a saint — a halo, in other words. Many religious works of art feature Christian saints, each with a radiant nimbus. There is a more scientific kind of nimbus as well, a large, gray rain cloud. In Latin, nimbus simply means "cloud," possibly connected to nebula, "mist, vapor, or fog."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

nimbus nimbi nimbuses

Scheib’s staging, just Bayreuth’s 11th “Parsifal” production, paid homage to Wieland Wagner’s breakthrough 1951 minimalist sets with a circle of light that represented both the knights’ round table and a flying nimbus above the wasteland.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 26, 2023

Humanizing Bunny is in keeping with the show's general nimbus of empathy for all of its personalities, even its villains.

From Salon ● Jul. 6, 2022

O’Connell — Didi, to her intimates — is petite and nimble, with a queenly nimbus of red hair and a default expression, offstage anyway, of intent curiosity.

From New York Times ● Jun. 17, 2022

This is a kingdom in which the phrase artificial intelligence bathes “everything it was applied to with the nimbus of a bright future.”

From Washington Post ● Nov. 17, 2020

The bitterns boomed and the marsh harriers skimmed over the reeds and millions of widgeon and mallard and tufted ducks flew about m various wedges, looking like champagne bottles balanced on a nimbus of wings.

From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White

There were large nimbi and small nimbi about their drooping heads, but the face was always the same.

From A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy

There, too, were the brass crowns, or nimbi which were intended to protect the heads of the gods from bats and birds.

From Callista : a Tale of the Third Century by John Henry Newman

They and their emblems are painted; the nimbi and the ribs of the shells are gilded.

From The Shores of the Adriatic The Austrian Side, The Küstenlande, Istria, and Dalmatia by F. Hamilton (Frederick Hamilton) Jackson

I have printed nimbiferi in preference to nubiferi because Jupiter is linked with nimbi at two other passages.

From The Last Poems of Ovid by Mark Bear Akrigg

There are various Bernini saints and seraphs in stucco-sculpture, astride of the tablets and door- tops, backing against their rusty machinery of coppery nimbi and egg-shaped cloudlets.

From Italian Hours by Henry James

Even when the music whips up complex, noisy nimbuses of competing motifs, the fast, finely judged changes within the dense activity are preparing you for variations on the weather.

From New York Times ● Aug. 22, 2022

White dogwood branches looked like clouds, the pale saucers of their blossoms arranged in white nimbuses.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 29, 2018

A mid-17th-century watercolor with gold and ink shows them with flaming nimbuses over their heads, rather than the round halos of Western art, and yet Mary is dressed in Western style.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 12, 2015

The village houses receded through shifting distances of pale gloom; one could scarcely distinguish the white slants of their roofs, and the lamp-lights which shone out newly in some of the windows made rosy nimbuses.

From Jerome, A Poor Man A Novel by Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman

I never set eyes on them, but they appear to my imagination equipped with the largest kind of wings, and nimbuses round their heads as big as shade-hats.

From In the High Valley Being the fifth and last volume of the Katy Did series by Susan Coolidge

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